Fresh Start
by Random007
Summary: Yana was adopted by Tony Stark a month ago, when they were both in need of a Fresh Start; A chance to be better. And they get it. Here's how they make the best of it. *Long explanation inside*
1. Chapter 1

**New story :) **

**So technically, this is a continuation of my last story, Forgotten, but I've tried to make it so that you can read this alone. That one focused on Natasha and her sister, whereas this one is going to focus on Tony and his adopted daughter. It's written from Yana's point of view, and will hopefully stay that way. If you have come from Forgotten, or want to read that and come back (I suggest it) this takes place about a month and a half afterwards. **Also, I don't like to write dreams or flashbacks in italics anymore because it's hard to read so you'll have to figure that out but I'll do a line break in between them.****

**Things to know if you aren't going to read Forgotten (SPOILERS):**

**»Captain America: The Winter Soldier has happend, S.H.I.E.L.D. has fallen.**

****»Natasha's sister is called both Eva and Anya.****

**»Yana came from the Red Room with someone called Klara, and their two other friends, Olga and Irina were killed. Yana's thirteen, and was in the Red Room from when she was two.**

**»Bruce Banner isn't staying at the Tower but the rest of the Avengers, plus Falcon and the Winter Solider are, and Bucky's regained all his memories.**

** And that's about it, but more may be added later. Read and review please!**

You know, what all the tabloids say about Tony Stark isn't always true. Sure he can be a bit egotistical, but most of the time he's nice, caring, kind- and I'm not just saying that because he's my father, adoptive one anyway. At the moment he still feels like a friend, someone trying to help me get over the loss of some others. But as Eva slowly becomes to feel more like a friend, Tony's becoming more of a parent. And that's a good thing. As for me, I'd say I'm shy, introverted and good at keeping my opinions to myself. Quite the opposite of Tony, but maybe that why we fit so well together.

There are a lot of people in this Tower and its really surprising to find that none of them wanted to hurt me. If I was still at... The other place, over 60% of them would have wanted to kill me. It makes a good change, to be able to train when I want to, eat when and what I want to and DO what I want to do. The only person I'm not really sure about is The Winter Soldier. I mean Bucky. But that's probably because he remembers training me. He's weird about Natasha too, but I'm pretty sure they had a thing going on back in the day.

Just before we left... The other place, two of my only friends got killed, Irina and Olga. Then, almost as soon as we got back here, Klara left me too, and went to some super secret spy agency academy. And now I don't really have anyone to turn to. Like I said, Tony's only just beginning to feel like a parent, Pepper even less.

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><p>I'm sleeping in the old dormitory back at the... Other Place. Except it's not quite right. Both Klara and I are with the older girls, not the little ones. I'm the only one awake, the others all breathing slowly out of time. I'm scared. Something's going to happen to me, I'm sure. Irina and Olga are the closest to me. I try to wake them but soon I hear footsteps coming. I creep back in to my own bed, and the footsteps stop. Now there's something warm and sticky on my hands. I need to see what it is. I turn on the light by my bed. The liquid, it's blood. Suddenly there are shadows looming over me. They've come to get me, to kill me, to torture me. I won't tell them anything. No- it's only Irina and Olga playing a trick. "You killed us, Yana." Irina says, her hair falling in to my face.<p>

"That's our blood on your hands." Olga continues. "You're a monster." monster Monster MONSTER! The word rings in my ears and bounces around my skull, trying to find away to get out, but it can't because it's trapped inside me. It is what I am. That's when I notice I'm screaming.

"Yana, YANA!" A voice comes from the other side of me, but I can't turn or stop the high pitched sound coming out of my mouth as Irina and Olga simultaneously lift their hair, showing a red line, dripping with the warm sticky substance that's on my hands. "YANA!" The person on the other side of me screams.

And I wake up.

"Yana, you scared the life outta me." Tony tells me, breathing heavily, like he was scared of something. There's nothing to fear.

"I'm sorry," I reply noticing I'm drenched in sweat, but that I'm still really cold.

"Yana, there's nothing to be sorry for. You just had a nightmare. Everyone has them, including me. Wanna talk about it?" Tony asks, sitting on the bed.

"Not really..?" I reply, not wanting to offend him or anything. He has been really nice to me so far.

"That's okay. I'll always be just a shout away." I nod and he turns to leave. The words 'don't go' are out of my mouth before I realise I'm saying them. Tony turns around and comes back to sit on the bed. "You know what, Yana? I'm going to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was, err, a princess who umm, lived in a tower. The evil wizard who opened the Tower was killed by Iron Man one day, and Iron Man took the princess home to be his daughter and they all lived happily ever after, the end?" He looks at me for approval and I nod. His total lack of imagination has sent me to sleep. I think that story telling isn't exactly his forte.

"Thanks dad." I whisper without even thinking about it.


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks to Sailorraven34 for reviewing!_

**A/N I forgot to do a disclaimer, but I own nothing. **

**Someone's doing fireworks night a night late with really loud screaming fireworks. It's pissing me off. Get a calendar people. I don't really have anything else to say, other than enjoy the chapter. And review.**

I wake up at 5:10 AM the next day. Rolling over, I put my feet down on to the floor, except the floors moving, like an earthquake. It's rising up an down and vibrating. I almost scream before I realise it's Tony's chest under my toes. I can't believe he didn't leave when I went to sleep. He really is a good dad.

I get out the other side of my bed. Putting on my workout clothes quickly, I go to the gym. To bein with, I punch the bag and I'm almost finished when Steve walks in. "You're up early?" He asks it rather than states, but doesn't expect an answer. Hanging his own bag up, he continues, "Bad dreams?"

"You would if you've been through what I have." I retort, deciding to road run instead of treadmill. I put headphones in to my ears and plug the jack in to my 'sPod' Tony designed, and head out.

I run for a long time. Running along, getting more and more lost, until I realise that I can't see the Tower, or any of the other buildings I've come to recognize. So I turn back, twisting and turning until I can see the Tower again. I step in the lobby and jump in the elevator as the 'sPod' connects to the WiFi, I get about 30 notifications, and I realise that I probably should have told someone where I was going before I left. Err, better go and see Tony before I have a shower, right?

To begin with, he's angry, and I'm terrified. I shake, tears I'm determined not to spill forming. He asks why I went without telling him and I shake out a, "Because I thought no one would care." But that's the truth, I didn't. Then he stops being angry.

"Yana," Tony whispers, tears not only pooling in his eyes, but rolling down his cheeks too. "I care. I care about everything to do with you, everything that you do, whether it be going out, or just watching TV. Don't ever feel like no one cares. Because I do. Because I love you." I don't know what to say. I can't say anything. So I quietly excuse myself and go to shower.

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><p>I'm about to knock on the door to Tony's work shoplab when I hear him talking to someone inside, and for once it's not himself. "I don't know what to do, Natasha. I'm crap at being a parent. She had a nightmare last night, I don't think it's the first one either, and I didn't know what to do. I tried to wake her up, but she kept screaming. And then I was about to have a panic attack, but she started to wake up, so I was able to calm down. And just earlier-"

Natasha cuts him off, trying to prevent Tony from getting too worked up. "Tony calm down. You're not a crap parent. You just haven't had much practice. It'll get easier."

He pauses for a moment, thinking of what to say. "I'm scared of hurting her, of terrifying her, like I-" He's scared of frightening me like he did this morning. He's going to have a panic attack because I wasn't brave enough to not to suppress my feelings of guilt.

"Tony. You're not going to scare her." Natasha's voice brings me back down to earth.

"Will you just listen to me?" Tony asks, obviously annoyed at Natasha. "This morning she went out for a run without telling me, so I was talking to her about it and she was just fucking terrified of me, I don't know what I was doing wrong." You're doing nothing wrong, Tony, it's all me.

"Maybe you were just reminding her of-" Don't say his name. Don't say it please. Don't say it please.

He cuts her off before she can say it. "Maybe I was but how do I not? When I don't know what reminds her of it?"

"Tony, calm down. She'll get use-"

"YOU'RE NOT HELPING AT ALL NATASHA!" Tony storms out and I rush to flatten myself against the wall where he can't see me.

A couple of seconds pass and Tony's completely gone before I let myself breathe again. "Yana?" Natasha calls from inside the workshop. "I know you're out there." I walk in, not expecting to be enveloped in her arms. "He's not coping well is he?" I shake my head.

"I don't think he knows how much I need him, how good at being my dad he is."

"You need to tell him. He won't believe it coming from anyone else." I nod because I know. But I don't know how to tell him in a way that will make him believe that it's actually coming from me, not just a some one else telling me to say something.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks to Sailorraven34 for reviewing!_

**A/N Sorry for not updating in a little while. School has really gotten in the way.**

Punch THWACK punch THWACK punch punch punch THWACK THWACK THWACK. And again. And again. Again. No one knows I come down here when I can't sleep. Except Eva. Because she comes here. She doesn't try to coax me back in to sleeping. She knows that if I went back to bed I'd just lay awake for hours. That's the only part of me that Eva gets. And the only part of her that I get. We get along fine, we just don't see eye to eye. We're not enemies, we're just not friends. Plus, she's more than twice my age.

About that, I never thought I would get lonely in a tower full of people, but I am. There's no one my age, and to be honest, it's kinda depressing "Eva said I might find you here." A voice says from across the room. I recognize it after a couple of seconds but I don't turn around. She doesn't deserve my time anymore. I go back to punching. "I'm sorry, Yana. Really sorry." I keep punching. "YANA!" She shouts.

"WHAT KLARA?!" I scream back, turning to face her. "You left me here, after Irina and Olga just died, and you expect me to be okay? Incase you haven't noticed, I'm not okay. Oh wait, you wouldn't have noticed. Because you haven't been here."

"Look Yana-" No I don't want to see. Not her. I push past her and head back to my bedroom, asking JARVIS to lock it down.

I don't sleep.

At midday, Tony raps on the door asking if I'm okay. When I lie that I am, he gets JARVIS to override my order and comes to sit with me. "God you look ter-" he cuts himself off, realising the mistake, which causes the corners of my mouth to turn upwards. "Yana, everything's going to be okay, you know. Eventually. I know it's hard to accept when someone's dead, or they just don't care about you anymore, but you have to rise above it. You have to show them that they don't matter to you." Does Klara not mean anything to me? I obviously don't mean anything to her, but can I just let her go? She and I went through hell together, but that was with Irina and Olga. Perhaps they were the glue that stuck us together, without which we won't we won't be able to work. Maybe I've become part of a different, much bigger, tool kit now but her being here throws a spanner in the works. "Yana?" Tony clicks in front of my face, and I can tell it's not the first time. "Do you want me to tell her to leave or not?"

"No," I reply, " I have to show here that I'm stronger than her." Tony nods and leaves me.

I get dressed, but the time I'm down on the Avengers floor, all of Clint Barton's famous pancakes have gone. Not that I'm surprised, it is midday. So I eat an apple instead. Then I hear someone sit next to me, and I can tell by the breathing who it is. "Yana, don't be too hard on her. She did come back especially to see you."

"I know. But she wouldn't have needed to if she hadn't left." Natasha sighs. I'm annoyed at Klara, angry even, and nothing will change that.

"Do you actually hate her, or the fact her coming back he's brought up all the bad memories of the Red Room?" Never say the name. Names make places real. Names make things real, people real. Names bring bad things. The bad place. Is Klara reminding me of that? Yes. Can I deal with it? No. She has to leave and I'll have to tell her why. I turn to talk to Natasha, but she's already gone.

Klara was there when I first came to the other place. I was two years old, and don't remember much of it, but Klara was ten and she'd always said that I was the youngest she'd ever seen, and she'd been there a long time. I was brought in two weeks before Natalia Romanova left, and since I only had the name Yana, people began to call me Yana Romanova. I was supposed to become her, if Klara didn't make it. That's what he told me. That's also how I got to know Klara. She and I had all these extra things, because we'd supposedly been picked out for our 'greatness'. Ha.

I find Klara talking to Eva on the Avengers floor. "Umm Klara?" I ask before my brain has even formulated any kind of speech. She nods, almost suspiciously. "I've come to realise that you being here has unconsciously brought me back memories of what it was like to be back in... the other place. I'm sorry about the way I acted earlier, it was childlike and unprofessional." Klara smiles, but before she's thought of something to say, Eva begins to speak,

"I'm sorry dude, you're thirteen. Even if something was childlike, you're a freakin child! And you don't need to be professional when you're around friends... You guys are friends, right?" Tears begin to fall down my face.

"I think we are now. Yana, it's okay." Klara reaches out to hug me. "Eva doesn't know what it was like back there, how you had to be an adult by the time you were five, how it was a business, for them to sell us. But you're not there any more. You're allowed to be a child again." I smile and hug Klara back. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No, just to understand." Klara grins and I turn away to go and eat another apple. I deserve it.

As I'm leaving, I do hear Klara say, "She can't remember what it's like to be a person. She was there for eleven years, and if not for your sister, she'd have been there for eleven more." Maybe Eva will be able to understand me better soon.

Tony passes me in the overly spacious hallway and gives me a thumbs up/ down as he's pretending to listen to Steve. I give him a thumbs up back and as we pass we high five.


	4. Chapter 4

_Shoutouts to Jo-Jo287 and Sailorraven34 for reviewing!_

**A/N I'm sorry if this chapters a bit rubbish, and that my updating schedule is a bit non-existent. I'm having a truly shit day, (and that's saying something I don't even swear that much) the details of which I'm not going to go in to, because I wrote it out and it was about 200 words, just believe that it has been utter crap. Anyway enjoy and leave a review to cheer me up!**

Pepper takes me out for mother daughter bonding, even though she's technically not my mother, just my dad's girlfriend. I'm confusing myself. Pepper and I haven't hit off like Tony and I have. She's at work a lot and she doesn't understand me , not like Tony does. He's killed people, been captured, like me, but Pepper's more of an army wife stereotype, waiting for him to come home with no clue what's going on.

When Pepper takes me to the mall, I wonder what kind of girl she thinks I am. I don't like shopping, I don't like having money spent on me, no matter how much Tony has, and I don't like crowds. And me being with Pepper could attract unwanted attention. Media attention.

Oh great. We are actually going shopping. Apparently I need new clothes. I head straight over to the section of black, and while Pepper follows me, I know she would rather be in the girly section. I get some black skinny jeans, black leather trousers, a couple of tops and Iron Man pjs for the kicks. Then Pepper manages to drag me over to the dresses section. She picks out a couple for me to try on and the first two don't fit but the third actually looks kinda pretty. I've never really felt pretty before. Pepper decides that I need to get that one, because Tony Stark's daughter and she might need to go to important things. Pepper picks up a couple of things for her and then we go to some fancy pants restaurant. We sit in very awkward silence. "Yana... I know I'm not Tony, and I don't know at all what it's like to be in your position, but I just want you to know that I care about you, as do he, and I know I'm not around much, but feel free to come to me if you need it."

"Thanks Pepper." I reply automatically. "You're the best parents I can remember having." I say it with a smile, as if it's funny, but it's true and slightly sad, because I can't remember my real parents. She smiles too and we begin to talk about Tony, because he's our connection.

I think Tony's glad when we both come home alive. I know she's special to him and they've known each other a long time. He also knows I hate shopping and she took me shopping. Still, it was nice to get to know Pepper a little better.

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><p>"She's gonna beat your sorry ass, Birdbrain." Dad says as Clint and begin to play Mario Kart. As it turns out, Clint is pretty rubbish at Mario Kart and I beat him 9 times to zero. It's fun though, playing this game. Tactical, but still fun.<p>

"You should use this as a team building exercise. Tactics and stuff." I say as Clint and I try a team race thing. Tony's always looking for team building exercises, an excuse to play games, and to make Steve and Thor use technology.

"How did you get so good at this, Yana?" Clint asks rhetorically, "You didn't even know what a Wii was a couple of months ago."

"Got bored." I reply, which is the truth. You can play these games on your own, and there's hardly ever anyone around to play with. I win another race which unlocks another level. Which contains Rainbow Road. Clint chooses that one and ends up falling off he road more than actually driving. I lap him three times, I think. Then Thor comes in, exclaiming how the road is like some Asgardian bridge.

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><p>"Right. Which one of you punched a hole in the state-of-the-art gym wall and got JARVIS to delete the footage?" Tony asks, not exactly calmly. "Was it YOU Steven? Tell me with a straight face that it wasn't you!" Tony marches up to Steve, looking in to his eyes, which is funny because he's much smaller than Steve. I think he's supposed to look intimidating.<p>

"It wasn't me." Steve replies quickly, and honestly, and everyone knows that the good Captain can't lie.

"Fine. Natashalie? Bird Man?"

"Don't call me that." Natasha snaps, "We didn't do it, Stark. We took Anya and Klara to that new S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Canada and got back a couple of hours ago." Natasha replies, which we can all vouch for. They were gone for a couple of hours. And Anya and Klara aren't here anymore.

"Thor? No? Right then, we can all go down there and measure our fists in the dent, shall we?" Tony says. He's obviously very upset about his wall, of a room that he uses least out of all of us. Everyone uses it daily, Thor uses it weekly and Tony uses it monthly. Well, Pepper does use it less than him. And Jane.

"Okay." Clint says. "Cos I didn't do it." And Clint leads everyone to the gym. He measures his fist, and its too big, as is Steve's and Thor's. Natasha's is slightly smaller, but too big for the dent.

"Who's is it then?" Tony asks, no longer angry but curious.

"I did." I whisper. "I'm sorry."

"How on earth did you manage to make a dent as big as that?" Steve asks.

"Drugs from the other place... I'm sorry. I was bored." A look crosses Tony's face and I'm pretty sure he's up to something.


	5. Chapter 5

_Thanks to Jo-Jo287 and Sailorraven34 for reviewing!_

**A/N Sorry for the long wait for this update. Life's being a bit horrible at the moment, and I've caught a bit of writers block, as well as a cold. Oh and the conversation between Yana and Max is sort of based on the first one I had with the French girl that joined my school and is the only other person in my year to get the bus I get. That was also the day I did the twelve minute run in PE.**

"So you're Tony Stark and you want your adopted daughter to start at _our_ school?" This has been going on way longer than it should have done, I'm positive about that. Though I've never exactly been to school. "You're sure you want her to start here?" Does this guy not comprehend English? To be honest I'm surprised Tony hasn't completely flipped his lid yet. I guess that over the last couple of months, he's grown up a lot.

"I'm sure sir. Although, I do not wish for her to have any connection with me, so it would be best if she were called Yana Romanova." The principal sighs and brings out a load of papers for Tony to sign. He scans through them and signs on the lines. I give him a half smile and turn back to the principal.

"The language electives left are Russian, Ger-"

"I'll do Russian." He gives me an incredulous look and I smile sweetly while we sort out the rest of my timetable.

Tony leaves soon, before I'm ready. Although he hugs me and says that everything will be fine I'm not sure I believe it. I'm nervous, but excited. I wanted this, didn't I? I'm going to have to interact with people my age, lots of people my age. They're going to think I'm weird. I'm an outsider, starting slap bang on the middle of a term.

Next I'm assigned a buddy. A buddy. Seriously? She's called Hayley, she's quite pretty, her hair is blonde as her eyes are blue, she's tan and her teeth are white. She seems, on the outside, like the kind of person I would hate, but as soon as she's opens her mouth, she's my friend. She doesn't try to talk down to me, make me feel an outsider or anything. She leads me to this homeroom thing, asking me questions all the way.

I'm the odd person in this class. Everyone else is neatly in pairs at their desks, and I'm just sat in a row by myself, a long line of empty double desks next to me. Hayley keeps glancing back at me, and it looks like she'd rather be sitting next to me than whoever she is. When the bell rings, she takes me down a couple of corridors to whatever I have. Maths. Great. The teacher makes me introduce myself to the class, so I say, "I'm Yana and..." trailing off awkwardly and sitting down red in the face. I've done this kind off maths hundreds of times, but I pretend to struggle, finishing slightly after everyone else. No one really pays attention to me, except for Hayley. We finish up and she takes me to Russian. She has German next door. Conjugating verbs how fantastic. I'm Russian I can't even pretend that I'm no good at this. I end up doing a speaking exercise with the person next to me, Laura, who's grammar and pronunciation are both terrible, but she seems to get the gist of it. It's finished too soon, and I wait for Hayley outside her German class.

After physics and chemistry Hayley takes me outside to eat lunch. It's still Autumn so we can sit out by a tree. I expect her to have a load of friends so I'm surprised when there's only one guy waiting. "Hayley," he says, "Who's this?" He's not rude, just curious.

"Oh, Max, this is Yana, Yana this is Max, he's like my brother." Hayley introduces us.

"Hi. How are you?" I smile. He smiles back as I pull out my lunch.

"Fine... So Yana, why have you come here?" He asks.

"Oh umm, I lived in Russia until about four months ago with my sisters, Irina, Olga and Klara. Umm, our uncle who was looking after us was killed, so his err daughter, Natasha, took me and Klara in but Irina and Olga stayed in Russia. Natasha lives around here mostly. And since Klara's 21, she's in this government super secret spy agency training thing, with Natasha's sister Eva, and 'cause Natasha travels a lot for work, her friend adopted me and here I am." Well that was a shit load of lies. Hayley buys it, Max doesn't. I wouldn't buy it.

"Oh. So do you like New York?" Hayley asks while Max looks at me curiously.

"It's warmer. Nice though, less snow." I smile.

"How do you speak such good English?" Max asks.

"That is a story for another day," because if my English wasn't perfect I'd be killed. "But what about you guys?" Turn the conversation around before I bury myself too deep in lies.

Hayley answers first, "I moved here from Iowa about five years ago, when I was eight. My dad had to move for work. And that's about it really."

"I didn't mean your story, what about you? You as a person?"

"Well, I like green, cats, books, umm, I'm not that interesting?" I smile and nod, looking at Max.

"I'm not interesting either. I've lived here all my life. I like blue, dogs, movies, basically the opposite of this one." He ruffles Hayley's hair.

"Max." She gives him a look. It's not scary, well only a little, but he stops anyway. I smile. I like these people.

Next we have gym, which is kinda good because I can make my stand in this place, especially because we're doing fitness. Hayley seems like she's kind of fit, and she has said that she likes PE. She takes me to coach Capp and introduces me, and Capp says, "If you feel like you need to stop, just tell me." I'm on the verge of saying I won't need to but I stop myself, knowing it'll seem rude. That's when I learn we're doing a twelve minute run. Capp asks us to get in to partners and I choose Hayley, because I know no one else. She does her run first and I count thirteen laps, which is quite good, I don't know the distance but it's one of the fastest out of the girls. Then I go, and I know I lap a couple of people but I'm not sure how many laps I've done until coach blows the whistle and everyone stares at me. Twenty Six. Double what Hayley got. I guess the other place was useful for something after all.

"Wow." Hayley tells me as we're getting changed. "How the hell are you so good?"

"I... you don't want to know. But I'll tell you someday." And I make myself a promise that I will. Whether it's next week or in ten years time, I will tell her.

Next I have Geography while Hayley and Max have history, then we all have English. And then I'm allowed to go home. I walk two blocks and find a red car waiting. My dad's inside it, which I'm surprised about.

"Hey." He smiles and I climb in the front next to him." Have a good day?"

"Yeah." I smile. "It was great."


	6. Chapter 6

_Thanks to Jo-Jo287 and Sailorraven34 for reviewing!_

**A/N I think I've said sorry for the late update on practically every chapter of this. I'm sorry. I'm also really tired (four hours sleep last night, clever me right?) This could also offer as an explanation: even though it's the last two weeks of school, teachers are just "You must have tests!" Then on the weekend it's cross country, plus training twice a week. I'm also in three orchestra/bands, two of which practice after school and I've been going to the dentist for 45 minutes every Wednesday for the last two weeks for my teeth to be coated, which bloody hurts the next day, but luckily I only have two weeks left. Also got writers block.**

**It wasn't a great explanation. I'm sorry. I [hopefully] won't leave it this long again.**

When we arrive back, Tony tells me that Clint and Natasha went on a mission while I was at school, and that Thor went to Asgard. Also that Steve, Sam and Bucky had gone out. And that Pepper was at work. "So I guess it's just you me and Jane!" I smile. I didn't particularly want to tell everyone about every single detail of my day. "And since Jane's in the lab, it's just us! So tell me, did you make any friends?"

"A couple, Hayley and Max." We begin to talk about my day, then his day, and I realise how much I've missed him today. And how comfortable it is just to talk. Tony does really feel like family now. It's a nice feeling, we have a strong bond. And after a very lengthy chat, we order pizza and put on the Lego movie, Steve, Bucky and Sam joining us as they get back.

About ten minutes in to the movie, I ask Tony what Lego is. He smiles, realising how little I've got out the movie. Lego is a kids toy, and its basically just building bricks it turns out. And there's instruction manuals for everything. That clears a lot up.

The others all fall asleep during the movie. I don't. I need to find out what happens to Emmet, this weird creature with a yellow face. I think he's supposed to be a human? The movie finishes with that blasted song that I know Tony will be singing tomorrow when Pepper walks in, which is good because the others are all still asleep.

I get up and help her put the groceries that she's brought back away, which makes her smile a little. "Thanks Yana. How was school?" Everyone's going to ask me that at some point, aren't they?

I nod. "Good." She looks around, and sees Clint and Natasha are missing.

"Clint and Natasha on a mission?" I nod. "I thought that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't exist anymore."

"Tony said Fury needed them to do something." Pepper nods. I'm not as comfortable with her as I am with Tony. He understands me better. We have a bond. I awkwardly leave Pepper when Jane comes up, and go to bed, after doing the homework I was set.

The next morning I wake up, and am surprised to see Natasha sitting at the kitchen table when I go to eat my breakfast. She gives me a couple of her pancakes before telling me that she's going out and to tell someone, so they know where she is. I get dressed and come back, see Tony and tell him this, before getting in to Tony's car, ready to go. Hayley and Max haven't gotten bored of me quite yet, so that's all fine. I can't help but wonder why everyone seemed to be on the edge this morning. Maybe something happened on Clint and Natasha's mission. I don't know.

Clint picked me up today. He seems really tired, and kinda angry. I ask him about it, but all he says is that Natasha is being a pain in the ass. I shut up then for the rest of the way home. When I get in I make a cup of coffee for Tony and take it down to his lab. "What are you doing home so early Pepper?" He's reading through some information on a screen.

After a couple of seconds I say "It's me." And set down the coffee cup. He turns quickly and I see what it says on his screen before he closes it. Hayley Davis. "Are you looking up my friends?" I say quietly, angrily. He doesn't reply, confirming my suspicions. "WHY? WHY DO YOU NEED TO DO THAT? Can't you accept that they're my friends before looking up every single bit of their life story?" I storm out, change and go up to the gym. I guess some bonds break sometimes.

I'm so angry and I need to take it all out on something, anything. A punching bag will probably suffice. Natasha's already in there but I ignore her I'm too angry. It's my life. They don't even know who Tony is to me. Natasha has some music playing, and though I say nothing about it, some song comes on and she freezes before shutting it off. I know something's wrong when she just stops and sits down in front of the bag, wincing as the momentum hits her in the face again and again.

"Natasha what's wrong?" I ask, walking over and stopping the bag

"It doesn't matter. What's wrong with you?" She replies, wiping her face.

"Tony... I'm angry at Tony. What's wrong, Natasha?" I press the issue.

"Clint... Clint and I had a disagreement. I've told him, I don't need him to save me. I'm a big girl, a bloody assassin, not a damsel in fucking distress." Even the strongest bonds must break then. They've been through everything together. What happened? I'm not going to ask, but I still need to know.

"What a prat." I'm not sure I mean it, but it seems to be what Natasha needs right now as she smiles. Maybe we can help each other through this.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N I'm not sure I like this chapter... but it's longer so :)**

"I need to see Klara." I whisper, as I realise how much I need to talk to her.

"I want to see Anya. We need to talk about some stuff." Natasha tells me.

"So we can take one of Stark's jets and fly to the new S.H.I.E.L.D. You know where it is, right?" A look crosses her face and she realises how majorly pissed off at Tony I am. I don't think I've ever called him Stark before. The look disappears almost as soon as it came.

But Natasha nods. "Go pack some stuff quickly and meet me on the roof in ten." I rush up to my room and lock the door behind me. I'm glad I did because Tony comes up a couple of minutes after I've begun to chuck clothes in to my bag. I shove that and myself in the wardrobe, shutting the door just in time. Tony gets JARVIS to open the door and after a quick look, he assumes I'm in the gym. I resume my quick packing and meet Natasha on the roof, where she has the Stark jet all fired up and ready. I jump in and we take off.

After half an hour begin to wonder of I acted a bit rashly. He might've just been looking out for me. But even if he was, he should have told me. It won't work if he keeps secrets. We land before I'm ready. I have to mentally prepare myself to see all Klara, to make sure she doesn't bring back memories that I'd rather not think about. But I need to see her. When we get out of the plane, there's guns everywhere pointing at us. "Hold your fire." A voice comes out of nowhere. "Nat. What're you doing here?" An Asian woman walks forward, until she stops right in front of us. Judging from her tone and the way she says Nat so casually, I think she's a friend.

"Milly." Natasha says in a friendly tone. "Didn't expect to see you here."

"Likewise. At least I live here. What you doing here Nat?" The Milly person steps up for a hug during which Natasha whispers in her ear about why she's here. It's because Clint was being a prat and she needed to get away from him. The Asian woman takes Natasha somewhere and I'm left standing on the ramp alone.

Well until this young woman comes up to me. "Hey," she says, "I'm Skye." She's got brown hair and brown eyes.

"Hi. I'm Yana." I say, staring in to the distance. I snap out of the trance I'm in and say, "D'you know where Klara is? Tallish, really long white-blond hair, blue eyes, really pale? Please tell me she's here."

This Skye person must know Klara because she immediately says, "No. She's gone for a mission, due back in a couple of days." Okay, That's quite annoying. "Her, Romanoff, Wilson." So Eva's gone too. We came here for nothing. I tell Skye this and she sighs. we begin to walk and get to a kitchenette place. "Don't worry. What's up with you anyway? I'm sure I could help a little bit."

"I had a fight with my dad. Nothing big, I was just so angry at him." I say. This new S.H.I.E.L.D. place is supposed to have trustworthy people in it right?

"Who's your dad?" I put my head down. Why does it matter?

"Her dad's Tony Stark, and on the contrary Yana, it is something big." A voice says from the shadows. I tense, my breathing becoming laboured.

"Who the fuck are you and how the hell do you know those things?" I ask. No one's supposed to know that. No one.

"Fury me keeps me updated. Phil Coulson." He holds his hand out, which I don't shake. I'm too focused on a steadying my heartbeat.

"Sir I think you scared her." Well noticed Skye.

"So what were you fighting about?"

"It doesn't matter." I insist, and Coulson realises that he's not going to defeat me.

"Okay... What's Natasha complaining out about downstairs?"

"Why do you care?" I snap. I hate to say it, but I've become protective of Natasha, as she's become protective over me. Especially at a time like this, when she's weak.

"Natasha was one of my agents. Her and Clint were my team for years, Strike Team: Delta. I know things about her past that you couldn't think about." Seriously? We literally have the same past. The same, traumatizing past.

"Her and Clint had a fight. He took a bullet for her or some crap. And I highly doubt that, did Fury not tell you that was in the... other place for eleven years."

"What? They've had so may fights about things like that, even before they were together. And no, he didn't." He knew they were together. Natasha told us only a handful of people knew that. Why haven't I seen this guy before, if he's so close to Clint and Natasha? I've met Maria Hill, she works at Stark industries, and I've met Fury, they seem to be about the only friends those assassins have. I stay silent, not sure what to say. "I wish I could go comfort her." It's not exactly a hard wish to come true is it? Just march your ass down there!

"Why can't you?"

"She thinks I'm dead." How can someone think you're dead? There's no time to dwell though, seeing him could make Natasha a bit happier, or at least take her mind off Clint.

"Well go down there and tell her you're bloody not." He shakes his head slowly, debating. He probably has orders not to see her. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't actually exist dude! You can do whatever you want! He's silent for a moment. "Go down there and comfort her. Now." Sometimes I wonder how I can ever be serious.

"Wow." She says, "Never seen Coulson give in that easily before." Well I'm just a miracle worker then.

Skye pulls up some security feed of the room Natasha's in. She's calmed down a bit now. "... just can't believe he'd do it again. I don't need him to do that, and I don't need to be anymore in his debt." The door opens and Coulson walks through.

"Coulson." The Milly person and Natasha both say with varying tones, Milly's with warning, Natasha's angry, disbelieving.

"And now I'm hallucinating. Great. This is the end of life as I know it. Maybe I'm going to hell, and he's come to get me." Natasha says, evenly monotonous.

"Get out." Milly says, angry.

Coulson ignores both of them. "I'm sorry that you and Clint had a disagreement Natasha. But I know you'll work through it." Coulson's eyes are glued to Natasha's. "I'm also sorry that I died unexpectedly. It took months to bring me back, and after that Fury decided that my being alive was probably best to keep up with the Avengers, which included you two." I'm surprised Natasha held on this long, with out shouting at him. She looks angry, really angry. "

"You're fucking dead Coulson. Loki stabbed you through the heart. I'm not sure if it's worse that I'm hallucinating or you're alive. Which you're not. He's not alive, is he Melinda?" Milly's called Melinda? Her and Natasha must be close.

"Get out." Melinda says, her eyes livid and Coulson scampers away.

He comes back to me and Skye. "Yana can you call Clint? I want to talk to him." Coulson asks me.

I sigh quietly to myself. "Sure, give me five minutes to talk to him first." I walk away, listening to the dial tone, but only one ring.

"Where on earth are you Yana? We've been looking for you everywhere!"

"It doesn't matter. What happened with you and Natasha?"

"It doesn't matter." He mimics me.

"Well then you won't care that she's been crying for a couple of hours straight, then passed out?" I say in a sickly sweet patronising tone. It's only been a couple of months, but I know what makes Clint tick. Even if it's not true

"Tasha?" He whispers, and I know he misses her. "Where is she? Are you with her? Can I talk to her?" I look back at the screen showing her and Melinda locked in conversation, probably about Coulson, judging by how angry Natasha looks.

"Nope, she's still passed out. But you can talk to someone else. Here he is." I pass the phone to Coulson. He walks away which is kinda annoying, because I want to hear what happens.

Skye explains to me how Milly person is actually called Melinda May, and how everyone addresses her as May as we go down to see how Natasha is. "You okay?" I ask her.

Natasha nods slowly, squinting, as if she's trying to see something in the back of her mind. "Coulson's not actually alive is he? I mean he was stabbed through the heart with an Asgardian staff-"

"Nat." May says quietly. "He's alive."

Natasha seems to accept it now. "Who else would Fury let lead this organization?" No one answers. "Yana, have you called Tony, to tell him where you are?" I shake my head. "Call him and tell him that you're with me, he's probably worried sick."

"I called Clint," I whisper, unable to look her in the eye, "Coulson wanted to talk to him. But he was concerned about you." Natasha begins to smile but stops herself. We fall in to an awkward silence for a bit, until Coulson comes back and passes the phone to Natasha. She begins to look like she's about to cry seconds later, never actually managing to cry, and continues to until she's smiling, a couple of minutes later. She's talking in a language I don't know, and looking around, neither does anyone else. After about ten minutes, in which she's gone through about every emotion I can think of, Natasha passes the phone to me.

"Yana, I'm sorry so so sorry. I wanted to make sure you were safe, because you're one of the people that matter to me the most. You have no idea how scared I was when I couldn't find you, then when JARVIS said that you and Natasha had left. You mean so much to me, and when I thought... anyway the point is, I'm really sorry for looking up your friends, and please come back I need you." I don't speak because a wave of emotion hits me. I need him so much, my father.

"I'm sorry, "I whisper, sincerely. "I love you." I think that's the first time I've ever said that to him. Then I begin to cry silently, sniffing occasionally.

"Okay, Yana where are you so I can fly right over there and give you a big hug." He asks me.

"I don't know. I'm at S.H.I.E.L.D. with Natasha 'cause she wanted to see Anya and I wanted to see Klara but Klara and Anya aren't here so I was talking to Skye and Coulson, wait he probably knows the coordinates, lemme go ask."

"Coulson's dead. He's dead Yana." I take the phone away from my ear and ask Coulson to explain how he's not dead and give him the coordinates of this place in super secret spy code. A couple of minutes later I get my phone back and dad says, "I'm coming Yana, don't worry."


	8. Chapter 8

_Thanks to Jo-Jo287, Sailorraven34 and ronniefranco8 for reviewing._

**A/N I have just realised how unrealistic my goals are. I want this story finished by 2015 (though originally it was Christmas) and I'm on chapter seven out of about seventeen. I'm going to try, but I have to see a lot of my family over the two week break. Nine updates and ten days. And I'm halfway done with the next chapter so I might get that up tomorrow... hopefully...**

I know Tony's suit is really fast, but I don't expect him to be here any time soon. I wander around, avoiding everyone, and find a window to look out of. Except all the windows here are fake and show random scenes from around the world. So I stare at the picture instead. No one disturbs me, which is good. I hope Klara's okay, wherever she is.

I don't know how long I've been waiting on the floor of this deserted corridor, starting at the picture, but it changes which shakes me up a bit. The scene is the same place, but it's now dark and the moon is out instead of the sun. It must be past sunset. My guess is that this corridors been my seat for an hour.

All of a sudden, a load of people rush past. I bring my legs up to my chest so the don't get stamped on, and hear 'We've got a bogey!' Being shouted through the radios. I smile and begin to follow them. Tony's here. The people all rush in to the hangar, and assume the positions in which they greeted me and Natasha. Dad drops Clint, who immediately rushes to the bin and throws up, muttering about loop the loops. The Iron Man suit looks around, looking for me. Then Tony steps out the suit and runs towards me. He crushes me in to a hug, leaving all the S.H.I.E.L.D. people in shock. Then Coulson arrives, says to Tony to take me home, and takes Clint by the wrist like a child to see Natasha. Dad doesn't even blink about seeing this supposedly dead man, but instead seems to be fully concerned about me.

Tony gets in the suit and picks me up, what I think is called bridal style, and flies off. We've been going about five minutes when he stops and sets me down. There's a sort of ledge that I sit on, which he does too once he's out of the suit. "Yana, you can't run off like that. I know you were angry at me and you have every right to be. But you can't just run off. I was so worried about you. I thought that someone had taken you, that you were dead. And that hurt so much."

"I'm sorry." I whisper, looking up in to his eyes. "I was angry and I wanted to help Natasha."

"Birdbrain's an idiot to piss her off." I nod. "Do you even know what they're fighting about?" I shake my head. "But back to what we were talking about, I love you, yeah? And I don't want you to disappear, ever." Didn't he give me a speech like this before?

"I love you too, daddy." His face looks slightly shocked at my choice of words, but he puts the suit on and begins to fly, taking me with him. I think I fall asleep because we get back in what feels like five minutes. There's also the memory and cold sweat of a nightmare.

* * *

><p>"You see the man?" Uncle Ivan asks me. I'm seven, that I know. I remember this. The first time I ever killed someone. "Shoot him." I have a gun in my hand and I don't even question him. The man dies before my eyes. And I don't react until later. I'm on my bed, alone, crying. No one's my friend yet. I'm alone, because I have one on one's, not a group lesson, so I can scream how much I hate myself in peace.<p>

* * *

><p>Tony wants to say something, but he's too scared to. "It's okay." I whisper. "I know I was screaming." We land at the Tower and JARVIS informs us that there's no one inside.<p>

"Actually it wasn't about that. But we need to talk about that later. Before you started thrashing, I was thinking," There's a chance to make a sarcastic comment here, but I don't, "Your friends should come over soon. But whenever you want. You shouldn't have to lie to them. But any day you want. Just give me a couple of hours warning first." I nod. He's right. I shouldn't have to lie to them. But now that I have, can I admit that I did lie? He's waiting for me to respond so I mutter a thank you.

"And Yana, I'm not going to push it, but sometimes it's better to talk about your nightmare. A problem shared is a problem halved and all." Again I nod. But I'm not going to be sharing any dreams with him any time soon.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Fast updates day #2! Going well so far. Only wrote the rest of this today and I'm seeing (babysitting) my cousins tomorrow so I may not update tomorrow, but I think I can get this done by 2015.**

How am I supposed to admit to my only friends that I'm a big fat frickin' liar? They've been asking me what's up since I went to Canada with Natasha. I need to tell them about my life, how I've lied more times than I can count. I know Tony said I could tell them but... I don't know how. "Yana?" Hayley says, clicking in my face. "You zoned out again. What's up? And don't say nothing. I'm not stupid."

"Are you both free after school?" They both nod uncertainly. "Can you come to my house? It's weird and I need to explain a lot." All three of us get out our phones and text parents, Tony's completely fine, which is good. Can't back out now. "Meet me here after school and I'll explain everything." The bell rings interrupting Hayley from whatever she was about to say.

I meet Max and Hayley after school in the spot where we eat lunch. "I lied." I tell them.

"About what?" Max asks.

"Everything." I reply. "Edited the truth. And I know you never believed me, Max. I said I lived in Russia, that was true, with these people who were basically my sisters, yes, but we met because our parents had been purposefully killed by a man who forced us to call us to call him uncle and trained us to be perfect assassins, in the Black Widow program."

"Isnt that an Av-" Max interrupts.

"Please can I finish? And the assassin thing, that's the first thing. I could kill you at least ten ways with a paper clip." I take a breath, in which Hayley tries to say something. "Hear me out, okay? So this man, he'd been training girls like me for years. When I was first brought in, at the age of two, the best assassin he'd ever produced escaped. Natasha. A couple of months ago, Natasha's sister got captured by him, and Natasha came to rescue her, swapping herself for Anya. We knew that she'd try to escape, Klara, Olga, Irina and I. So we asked for her help. The next day Olga and Irina are both dead and the Avengers are bombing the facility. Klara and I escaped." I pause, wondering how my tears haven't spilled yet. "You've heard about S.H.I.E.L.D., haven't you?"

Max nods, "The government place that was all over the news in March."

"They're rebuilding it in Canada. Klara went to work there, and Natasha works there from here, and travels a lot. So Natasha's friend, who lives in the same building adopts me. And yeah you were right. The Black Widow's an Avenger. Natasha's the Black Widow. She's also going out with Hawkeye, but that's not important. And Tony Stark adopted me. That's the second thing, Tony Stark's my dad."

I think Hayley's eyeballs are going to fall out of her head. Max seems more composed. "And we're going to meet him?"

"Yep. He's picking us up in a minute." I asked dad to come to the school a little bit late. But dad doesn't come. It's Clint. I wave my friends forward.

"I don't think that's Tony Stark..." Hayley whispers. "Wait..." She realises, "it's Hawkeye isn't it?" I grin as Clint opens the door.

"Clint Barton, Hawkeye, Archer extraordinaire, also happens to be a chauffeur on this fine day." I raise my eyebrows. "Sorry. Got a bit carried away there. I'm Clint."

"Come on." We all squish in the back of Clint's car, and Clint chats happily, although mainly to himself, becoming more and more comfortable with Hayley and Max. And they are becoming more confortable with Hayley and Max.

When we get to the Tower, dad's doing some experiment, Natasha training, and Clint joins her, so Steve and Bucky are the first people we meet. The fact that Bucky's not an original avenger and has a metal arm is slightly off putting. But still they are nice and it is only when we get to my room that Hayley realises that Steve is Captain America. Max and I roll out eyes, of course he's realised straight away.

About half an hour later, Tony knocks on my door. "Hey," he says as the three of us look up. "I'm Yana's dad. Just wanted to come and say hi." Silence for a moment. "I'll go now." He leaves.

Hayley turns to me and says, "You really do live with the Avengers, don't you?" I smile.

Max turns to her and says, "So you just thought she lives in the Avengers Tower, with Hawkeye and Captain America, and no other Avengers? Really Hayley?"

"Yep. I don't really know. It just seems so strange. Like a world out of a movie has suddenly become real." It's probably the truth to her, except to me it's like my life is a movie, and its coming to the end, I've had the backstory, the bad bit, now things are fine, and they're about to turn bad, ready for the finale. We continue just to chat, and do (very little) homework, before it's time for Hayley and Max to go home.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N Probably will update again later, because I didn't yesterday, but don't kill me if I don't. This fast updates thing is making me write more. Also I've written this this morning, after staying out with my friends last night, so I'm sorry that it's not the finest.**

The next day is Saturday. I get up early due to nightmares, and go to the gym where Steve is working out. I do my own stuff until we're joined by Natasha. She doesn't do anything, but sits and watches us for a while. Steve's confused too. "Spar." She says randomly. I walk over to the mats, as does Steve. Natasha tells us to begin, and Cap does nothing. I assume he's waiting for me to attack, but that's not my style.

"I can't do this Natasha. She's just a kid."

"She's better than I was at thirteen. Watch." Natasha gets up and takes his place. We're going to spar? Okay. Natasha attacks and I dodge. I'm going defensive for this.

After two minutes Natasha starts going a bit easy on me, and I know it's an invitation to attack, to show Steve I can fend for myself. In the end it's a fairly even fight and I could win but I'm interrupted by the loudspeakers. "NATASHA ALIANOVA ROMANOFF! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"

"Dad I was about to beat her!"

"That doesn't excuse it- Wait you were about to beat the spider?"

"She was going easy."

"Not really." I give Natasha a look. She wasn't going really easy? "Your daughter's something else Tony. I can see why Ivan chose her to replace me." I tense up at Ivan and run, all the way down to Tony's workshop.

He's expecting me with open arms. He must have been watching the footage. I run in to his arms and bury my head in his chest. I begin to cry. It's comforting, knowing there's people that won't judge me when I cry. Saying his name is like rubbing salt in an open wound, a gaping stab wound, no no. Deep breaths. Don't think about him.

Names hold power. Too much power. Like the... The Other Place. And his name. They bring back memories that I can't speak about. It hurts to think about. It brings back memories and makes them real.

* * *

><p>"Romanova. Mission report." He glares me, spit dripping from his teeth.<p>

"I killed him. Behind the hotel. Disposed of his body in the river." I reply.

"That would be why they found the body, no?" He tells me. I feel my heartbeat rising. I failed. He's going to... He won't kill me. I'm his greatest subject since Natalia. He'd kill someone else if they'd done this. "Come here." He says. I do. There's salt in his hand. I didn't tell him I was stabbed, but he's still rubbing the salt in to my shoulder. Salt in an open wound. I understand now. This really hurts. "Report to me later." He says and I'm told to leave.

Washing it out hurts more. That's when one of the other girls approaches me. People don't talk to me much, because I'm his favourite. It's lonely. "I'm Irina. You need help?" I nod and she moves my hair away and begins washing the blood and soap away. Irina's ten, a year older than me. Her friend Olga comes over eventually too. They completely wash and dress my wound something I've never done before. Apparently I should do that to avoid infection. Irina and Olga are kind, which is extremely unusual. I think it's nice though. They don't talk down to me, even though I'm the smallest that goes on missions. I think they're becoming my friends. _Attachments are a weakness. Don't get attached_. I hate to say it but I think friends are attachments. And he'll hurt me more when he finds out.

I'm almost late for my 'meeting' with Ivan. I don't want to think about it, but my arm really hurts. He hurt me. He always hurts me. He will always hurt me. But he hasn't found out about any _attachments_. That means he'll only hurt me more when he does find out.

* * *

><p>Yeah. Names hold a lot of power when they make you think about that. "You wanna talk about it?" Tony asks, and I make the brave decision of doing so.<p>

"There was this time when I was nine, and I'd finished my mission... and I did- I can't... It's too... I did it wrong, so he hurt me and I-Irina fixed me up. That's when she became my friend." _Attachments are a weakness._ I have too many attachments now. But attachments were a weakness there, and now even Natasha's got some. Maybe it's not so bad after all.

"Okay," He says. In a moment's silence, he composes what he's about to say, "When I was captured for those three months, there was a man helping me. Yinsen. And he helped me, not only build the first suit, but see that there was a way that I could get out. He helped me not to give up. He was also the one that first patched me up, with a car battery instead of an arc reactor, but still. Like your friends have patched you up. He gave his life to get me out of there, like your friends did. And it's a hard loss to take, but you've got to honour their memory, they gave you a chance at a good life. You've got to take it."

"How can I when I'm not a good person?"

"I first became Iron Man because I was captured, in the same way Black Widow was. And Hulk, Winter Solider and Hawkeye didn't become them exactly willingly. All of us had done bad things, my nickname was the merchant of death. But we've all turned around, use our powers for good, because it's the right thing to do. We still have the memories of everything we've done wrong, but also everything we've done right. You're not a bad person. What you've done might be bad, but you were his can still do good, because you're a good person, and I know that. The only thing that matters is if you know it yourself." The thing is though, I'm not sure that I do.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N This has nothing to do with the plot but I'm throwing it in there. Also, just realised that Hayley and Max's initials and H&M, which is a shop which my mum's cousin used to work at. Also I keep saying mom instead on mum because my thumbs are too lazy to go that far. Also, I genuinely meant to put this up yesterday, but I fell asleep watching Holby... again...**

I'm nervous. Really nervous. Meeting Hayley's parents for the first time. She says that they'll like me, but not many people have liked me before. If they're anything like their daughter I'm sure they'll be lovely. Max isn't coming, which seems unusual as normally they do everything together. "Hi! You must be Yana! Hayley's told us so much about you." Hayley's mom greets me.

"All good things... I hope?" I say quietly. She's quite intimidating. Hayley gives me a small smile.

She's silent for a moment, which leads me in to a panic that I'm not a good enough friend for Hayley, in her eyes at least, and that she hates me. "Of course! Just as long as you're not encouraging her to be friends with that boy."

"Who's 'that boy'?" I ask, quietly again, and I think I'm beginning to realise why Max hasn't come with us. Why does she not like him?

"Do you know Max? Max Flint? He's in our form." Hayley asks giving me a look which clearly says, please don't blow this for me. Hayley's a bit of a rebel then?

"Oh him. I don't know him too well. I'm sort of new." I look up at Hayley's mother innocently. She seems to buy my lie. Which she should because I was a spy trained for eleven years and I haven't lost my entire game yet.

"She mentioned, and good, I wouldn't want you, either of you, mixing with that sort." Hayley takes me away to her room before I ask anything else.

She brings out a notebook with a finger to lips to shush me. 'I'll tell you tomorrow,' she writes, 'she's listening'. I nod. I'm yet to have an opinion on Hayley's mother but I can already see that might be kind of thing she would do. She's the fussy pushy type that I hate. I'm glad Pepper's not like that. I can already see that Hayley and her mother's relationship is strained. I'm not sure what's up, but I'll ask Max. He'll probably know.

* * *

><p>"So what's up with your mother and Max?" I ask Hayley the next day at school before Max has arrived. We're waiting for him by our lockers and Hayley keeps opening hers and slamming shut again which leads me to believe that something happened after I left last night.<p>

"She thinks he's trying to corrupt me and make me lose my virginity." Hayley replies, nodding, like it's just a fact.

"Oh." I reply. I've never got that vibe from Max. What happened between them which made her mom think that?

* * *

><p>Hayley has to see a teacher at the beginning of lunch so Max takes the chance to talk to me about last night. "So you met Hayley's mom last night then?"<p>

"Yep. You're greatest fan." Max snorts.

"Hell yeah."

"What happened there?" I ask, wondering if I'm going to far. I want to know though. I need to know if there's any trigger things, or things I shouldn't say around Hayley's mom.

"Oh she hates me because my uncle and her slept together when they were 16 and she got pregnant." That would make sense, if Hayley says her mom thinks he's trying to sleep with her. "Hayley has a half sister. But I've never met her. She's 26 anyway. Hayley knows her but she moved out eight years ago, when Hayley was five. So her mom hates me by association, though technically Jenna's my cousin. Me and Hayley didn't know when she became my friend though."

"Right."

"I've never met her. But... I don't know. Hayley loves her. But she hates her. She thinks their mom loves her more. But she doesn't, Hayley just can't see that. She loves them differently. She's trying to protect her by saying she shouldn't be friends with me, because of what Jenna did and all the messes she got in to, Jenna and her mom. But Hayley doesn't know about that, and I only do because my uncle told me. Hayley's mom believes I'm bad, but maybe my family does have a rep." What does he mean? There's a silent pause there, in which Hayley sneaks up on us. "She has pink hair."

"Talking about Jenna?" Hayley says, and Max screams. I snigger.

"Yep we were. She has pink hair." Max repeats.

"No she doesn't. She dyed it blue last month." Hayley argues.

* * *

><p>Hayley lies to her mom about going to my house after school a couple of days later. Apparently Max's mom doesn't know Hayley's Jenna's sister, and is fine with their friendship. We have to pick up Max's little sister from her school which is fine. He has a little sister, an older sister and an older brother. It must be nice to have people older than you to look up to, help you out a bit.<p>

Max's mom is nice. She leaves us alone. She's called Lucy. Max uncle is there, and he recognises Hayley as his sort of step daughter. Max's mom goes out to work a bit later.

We don't actually do anything at Max's house just mill around really. It was really just for me to meet his mother. Max's uncle offers to drop me and Hayley home as he's going to Hayley's house anyway, since Jenna's come over for a couple of days.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/ N In the A/N of chapter eight I said that I originally wanted this finished by Christmas day... And that is while I'll be updating (about) every two hours, until I run out, for the rest of today. So happy reading and hope I actually achieve this! (Also some reviews would be nice)**

I love New York. That's what I've decided. The people I know are lovely, they look after me. I have friends, friends that I feel like will stick by me, especially now they know my secret. And I know my family will take me to see Klara if I need to. The buildings have become familiar and I'm happy to walk around by myself.

So I'm okay when Tony calls me and asks me if I'm okay to either walk or get the bus home. He says Steve could come if I really needed him to, but Steve driving... No. He didn't have a licence in the 40s, and now he'll occasionally press the accelerator or brake too hard. Plus scientific research shows exercise makes you happy. And today's been a good day, so I can be bothered to walk.

Tony's in his workshop, and according to both Clint and Natasha, who've just got back from somewhere where they'd been to be 'coupley' according to Clint, and is working on some kind of radiation, and should not be disturbed. Steve is working out, and Bucky is just plain out. Sam's still doing time at S.H.I.E.L.D. Oh and Thor and Jane are out doing lovey dovey stuff. I settle my self down at the kitchen breakfast bar with a hot chocolate and a pile of homework. I get the maths out the way first and begin on my Russian. I'm almost done when a person comes up behind me and says, "That's wrong. You've spelt that wrong."

I whip my hair around, which catches Klara in the face. Smiling, I roll my eyes. My spelling of Russian and hers were always different. Like Americans and English with grey and gray. "Hey," I pause, not wanting to sound rude, "Why exactly are you here?"

"Well a little birdie told me that while I was on my mission, someone came to see me, and looking back at the security feed, she was really upset. Oh and Coulson was coming so Anya Sam and I jumped on the plane. What's wrong Yana?" She says. I don't want to talk about that.

"Nothing. Not anymore." She raises an eyebrow. "What?! The problem was fixed, I'm fine now, just don't want to talk about it."

"Fine. D'you want any help?" I nod and give Klara everything except the Russian piece of been working on. She lands it all back on me except some physics or something.

I'm done much quicker than normal. Klara seems to make the time I'm working go faster. "Hey, Yana," Klara says quietly when I'm almost done, "You know you can tell me, right? You can tell me anything." I'm silent. She's not who she used to be anymore. "I've seen the footage. You crying like that is not for no reason."

"I'll tell you one day. Is Anya around? Natasha might want to see her."

"Her and Sam are probably... doing something." I raise my eyebrows. "Yeah. They're a thing. Don't tell anyone especially not... Hi Natasha. How are you?"

"What are you not telling anyone? And why are you here?" Natasha asks sharply.

"JARVIS delete the last five minutes of footage. And she came to see me. Anya's around too." I say slyly and Natasha just rolls her eyes.

"Done, Miss Stark." I grin.

"I will find out." Natasha says, and I don't doubt her. She's a master spy for goodness sake!

"Why don't you go and find her?" Klara smiles sweetly, and Natasha realises that we were talking about something to do with her sister. I think Klara meant to give her that clue.

"If you say so." Natasha goes off to find Anya. So that's news. Anya and Sam have a thing going. I really hope for Wilson's sake Natasha doesn't find out.

Klara talks to me about what she's been doing. Apparently HYDRA's really hard to catch, but they're looking for the same thing as S.H.I.E.L.D. so they've run in to each other a couple of times. Most of its classified, but she gives me all the gossip that to be honest I don't really care about. There's some stuff about Skye and it's good to hear she's doing okay.

Sam's happy to see Steve again, I mean they're friends so of course he would be. Natasha and Eva have an argument about something in Russian. I tune it out once I realise it's not interesting. Klara, Anya, Sam and I are all waiting for Natasha to kick off but it doesn't happen. They've avoided getting caught for now. But Natasha is a master spy, she's bound to find out eventually. They're lucky they've got this far.

Coulson is going back the next day, which means Klara and Eva have to too. Sam is staying as he and Steve have to sort some things out, and Sam's acting a lot like a messenger between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. Klara's aware that she doesn't have that much left and keeps trying to get it out of me. She doesn't keep trying, because I think she knows that it'll annoy me, and she wants to leave on a happy note.

Klara hugs me bye before everyone else gets up to say goodbye. She's still got the whole 'never show any weakness' drilled in to her, but the fact she's doing it is a step in the right direction. "Be careful, Yana. Be careful."

"You too." I whisper. It was nice seeing her again. "See you soon."

"Not if I see you first." She grins before everyone else comes out to the rooftop to say goodbye. I'll miss her, but not too much. I'm more comfortable her now, and I have people my age that I'm friends with.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N and here we get to the most plotty bit of the plot. Third update today and its only 12.**

You know, there are just some things you don't expect at school. Clint Barton dropping out of a tree while you're eating lunch is one of them. Luckily I'm waiting for Hayley and Max, so no one sees that there's a crazy man in Kevlar wielding a medieval weapon. "Jesus fucking hell Clint. Can't you just call me like a normal person?"

"Yana. Don't panic. Give me your phone." I hand it over, suddenly worried. What's happened? Is it Dad? Natasha?

"Why Clint? What's wrong? What happened?"

"Yana. Listen to me. Don't worry. Fake being ill. I'll come pick you up. I've got to go. But don't panic." He disappears back in to the tree as I see Hayley and Max making their way over.

I'm slightly freaked while I pick at my lunch. The sandwich looks like some bird has come and picked all the crumbs off the top, leaving some holes. I'm not hungry, not when I'm sick with worry. Why won't Clint tell me what's happened? Am I going to freak?

Hayley and Max have some chatter going on about something I can't concentrate on. They haven't noticed my lack of participation, or how my hands and leg are shaking. I force myself to calm down. If it was that bad, Clint would have told me straight away. There's too much noise, even though it's quiet. Breathe in, breathe out. Count to three while breathing in, six when breathing out. It's really hot, and I'm covered in sweat. But it's cold sweat. I need to calm down. Now.

"Yana? You okay?" Max puts his hand on my arm and I don't know what comes over me. I've seen it before, back in the other place. Someone would put their hand on someone else's arm and that person would flip out, like they were being attacked. But they were the people Natasha called robots, the brain dead killing machines. Now I've done that. And Max is on the floor, arm twisted behind his back. I see the look of betrayal on Hayley's face and run in to the tree line, where we're not supposed to go. I begin to climb a tree, stopping when I'm a metre or two off the ground. I _need_ to calm down.

A couple of minutes later I hear Hayley and Max calling for me. I don't reply, my eyes not leaving the sky. I slip down a couple of minutes later, when my breathing and heartbeat are normal. I'm about to say sorry when I'm caught with the overwhelming urge to throw up. So it comes out more like, "I'm so sor-bleurgh."

"Right, you're going to the nurse, now." Max tells me. Good that that there's no hard feelings right? They take me to the nurse, which is exactly what Clint planned. Only he doesn't come to pick me up. Natasha does. So she's okay. Why isn't dad here?

Hayley and Max have to go to lessons, but I'm only alone for five minutes before Natasha comes. She signs me out and takes me to her car before I'm allowed to speak. And even then she gets in there first. "They said you threw up?"

"It doesn't matter. What happened?" I brush it off, hoping I'll get a straight answer out of Natasha.

"Clint was supposed to tell you." Lesson to self, don't trust Clint to tell anyone any thing. Shouldn't Natasha know that by now?

"He didn't. Tell me now."

"Tony's missing. Security footage shows him being drugged and taken by a man." Well shit. It's because of me, I bet. It's because I ran away.

"So how are we going to find him?" We get out of the car and stand in the hallway, neither of us wanting to go in and see the team.

"We don't know. There's no way of finding him, so we can only check cameras, all cameras, everywhere." They're not trying hard enough! They're supposed to want him back too! They should be thinking of why he was taken, not just sitting waiting for one of the machines to beep.

"That's not good enough."

"What do you suggest?" The HYDRA people going to know to avoid cameras, know where they are, is this much not obvious, they have to-

"Look for HYDRA."

"Why?" Sometimes I wonder about the intellect of these Avengers.

"They'll be out to get either me or you, because I escaped and you took down the organization they were getting all their super soldiers from." I don't know of a HYDRA base that they would have taken him to.

"That's not actually a bad idea." I'd forgotten Natasha was there. I stare at the floor, ideas forming in my head about where he could be, none of them quite working. Natasha goes in to see the others, hopefully to look for some HYDRA bases.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N Here have some more plot. R&R!**

I go down to his workshop, to try and get his smell, his ideas, and I might have the intention to cry a little. Because it's all my fault. And I have to put it right. And I could, if I could get there with the weapons I need. But I can't and I'm going to just cry instead of doing anything about it. I wish Klara was here, because she's my shoulder to cry on whenever he's not here.

I must fall asleep because when I wake up, I'm on the floor of his workshop. Some one must have come because there's a blanket around me, and that someone was probably Pepper. She's thoughtful like that.

I try to make a plan. I can't. No ideas are coming to my head. I'm trapped here, and when they know where he is they probably aren't even going to let me go anyway. I'm probably too young. But I'm the most affected. He's my dad. I can't not have him there. I love him and if he's not there... I'm not sure I can survive my life being ripped up a third time.

The Avengers won't let me in their meeting room to help with their plans, even though I could be the most help, because he's captured because of me. There are small mercies though, such as Clint finding me asleep in the vents above the meeting room and leaving me there. I didn't find out much though, because the room is soundproofed, and the vent leading directly in to it is too. I also am not forced to go to school. I get daily get well soon texts from Max and Hayley, but I don't reply.

This is the third day. I hate it. The feeling of not being able to do anything, besides watch security footage on repeat and try to see if there's anything I've missed. Pepper's burried herself in work and I haven't really seen her. I squint at the security footage and realise something. "JARVIS could you please make a hologram of this image?" I say, pausing it.

I've overlooked something major.

-./-.-.

NC. It's inked on the HYDRA's arm. Why? What could NC mean? It could be the place the HYDRA man came from, I mean it's just under the HYDRA symbol he's inked on his arm. NC. That's North Carolina isn't it. Klara was about to be transferred to a base there for a while, and then we got out. Could it really be...? Yes. That's my minds answer, and if it's wrong, I tried. I shouldn't bother the Avengers though. They should keep looking. In case I'm wrong.

How can I even get there? I'm not allowed to fly a jet. They'd notice anyway. Some days I would love to be Thor or have an Iron Man suit. Wait. I could take an Iron Man suit. They can't be that hard to fly.

Natasha has some weapons.

Guns, knives, catsuits.

I could take them

And I could take his suit to get there.

I need to go, now.

I felt Natasha's room with no interruptions, as everyone's in the meeting room. I steal some of her stuff, although it's actually borrowing as I plan to give it back. I run back down to his workshop and change, strapping guns and knives to me. The suits obviously a little big, but I roll up the sleeves and suck it up.

Next I have to get the Iron Man suit on. "JARVIS... can I have a suit put on... piece by piece. He puts it on around me, the arms and torso first as this hold my head in the right position. My feet don't touch the floor once the legs are on but I don't mind. The mask hits my face and I'm in. I'm actually doing this.

"Okay... can the suit fly me to these coordinates." I tell JARVIS and fill my face with determination. I can do this. "Slowly." I finish, because m not sure I want to die.

I'm actually flying.

Once I'm up in the air, I'm feeling fairly confident, ans I tell JARVIS to nudge the speed up. The afternoon sun is smiling and I begin to relax my tense body and go through various methods of taking people out in my mind.

It's summer, so it's a warm afternoon. It's a nice view, though I'm petrified of the suit running out of battery and crashing in the middle of nowhere. Especially when I realise that I don't have my phone.

I reach the HYDRA base at 4. And I sit. Watching. Waiting. How do I get inside?


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N I've labelled these chapters in the wrong order. It's definitely fifteen, but on my computer I've got this as sixeen and the next as fifteen. This is why you write chapters in order. Only two left! Seriously if I'm this productive every Christmas eve then _I wish it could be Christmas (eve) everydayyyyy!_**

He's definitely here. Five minutes after I got here I heard someone say, "Has the prisoner talked yet?". I was pleased when the other man replied that he hadn't.

Shit I can't take all of these men on my own. There's no way. I would try, but that would make things worse. Both Tony and I would be captured. But I don't want to get in trouble with Natasha, who will probably tell Tony. But what would be worse? Him captured and dead or me in a tiny bit of trouble? But I didn't bring anything, not even a phone. Nothing except Natasha's catsuit and an Iron Man suit. Which has JARVIS installed. "Call Clint." I command quietly, because I know he'll be the nicest to me.

"Are you sure Miss Stark?"

"Yes." I squeak, a million doubts going through my mind, but knowing that it's the only way. "

"Certainly, Miss Stark." Every single ring installs more and more doubts in my mind about whether I should wait for the rest or if I could take them all on. I have the Iron Man suit after all.

I'm on the brink of cutting off the call when Clint answers. "If that is you Yana…" Clint growls. I make an unintelligible squeak. "God you sacred us. When JARVIS said… And then Natasha's guns and suit… Yana where are you? We need to come and got you. Now."

"JARVIS is sending coordinates. Umm… I found Dad. But there are too many men to take on."

"We're coming. Don't worry. But if there's a next time, take us with you. One sec-" Clint shouts something like 'FOUND THEM' to everyone else and turns his attention back to me. "Right I've received the coordinates. Sit tight and we'll see you in a bit. And Natasha will have a go at you but ignore her. I do. See you." I smile and cut off. They're coming and when we go home, Dad will be with us.

About an hour later, I receive a message from Clint telling me to join in the fighting when they get there, but only if I want to. Of course I will, but from the inside. I have to get him myself. And that means taking this lovely protective suit off and going in to stealth mode.

The Avengers arrive moments later with guns blazing, arrows flying and other things being thrown around. Mainly a hammer and a shield. I jump inside the building through a window as all the HYDRA members run outside to defend the doors.

The first place I look for the holding cells is in the basement, as that's where it traditionally is. You'd think HYDRA would know that and put them on the top level or something, but I'm not wrong, all the cells are on one side of the basement, and they're all empty. The other side of the room has screaming coming from it and I'll guess that it s some kind or torture chamber/interrogation room. And that's where he'll be. I can't just walk through the door, that would put me in a venerable position, and probably get us both killed or worse. There has to be another way in. some one way glass to review everything from or something. I take a look, and low and behold, this HYDRA base is turning in to a stereotypical bad-guy-base. I take out the two men watching without batting an eyelid. The glass isn't bulletproof, which seems strange. I guess you do have to here. I take a knife and proceed to make a circle in the glass and climb through, looking at the interrogators back and putting a finger to my lips, if Tony can even see. He's in a very bad shape. His face is all beat up, and I'm sure if his eyes weren't pummeled black and blue, they would be anyway, due to lack of sleep. His shirt is off, so I can see exactly how bruised he is. The answer is very. I'd be surprised if half of his ribs were unbroken. There's also some cuts and evidence of waterboarding. He's been here four days. He'd be dead if we had been a day later. And by the looks we're almost too late.

"Where is she?" The interrogator hisses.

"Right... here." He whispers before passing out.

"Hi." I smile and punch him in the face. The man's a good fighter, but he's not Red Room material. What I mean to say is that I win the fight easily.

I can't carry Tony, and I have no way to contact the others. But we can't stay here. They'll have reinforcements in minutes. So I untie dad, wondering what the hell I'm going to do, when I remember that Tony can call an Iron Man suit. I just bloody hope it's the one I took. I bend his arm the way he does and pray.

My prayers are answered seconds later when the suit latches on around him. I grab on and shout, "JARVIS OUTSIDE!" The suit takes off and lands right by the jet that I'm assuming everyone took to get here. I leave him there, locked inside, and go to find Clint. I decide he's probably up a tree and instead find Steve. He regroups the team and Clint shoots a couple of explosive arrows in to the remains of the building (it half collapsed when quite a few walls were taken down by an Iron Man suit) before we all fly away in the Avengers jet, straight to a hospital. Natasha and Sam have both had basic first aid courses and Clint's picked a few things up, but Tony's in a terrible shape, passed out and far beyond their limited knowledge. We arrive at the nearest hospital ten minutes later.


	16. Chapter 16

_Thanks to Sailorraven34 for reviewing, multiple times._

**A/N I'm feeling so productive. Seriously. It's update #6 of the day, only a one left and then it's all over.**

The worst thing is when they take him away, because I can't see him, I can't help, I can't be there. He's taken almost straight away to have x-rays, CTs, as well as other things which sound just as horrible.

Steve realises that he should probably call Pepper after about an hour, which he does, and she seems relieved to know that he's alive, that everyone's alive.

At about midnight, Natasha tells everyone that we have to go back, but that Steve can stay, as he's team leader. I try to protest but Natasha doesn't alter her decision, I'm going with her. In the end she makes Clint carry me out because I protest. I have to know he's alright because it's already my fault that he's here, I can't have his death on my conscience too.

Natasha remembers we're in North Carolina when we get outside. She jumps in the jet and motions for the rest of us to follow. Sam and Thor both manage to fall asleep on the journey, and Clint looks halfway there, although he is flying the plane. I can't sleep. I'm too worried about him. I guess I care about him. I love him. He's my dad.

We get back to the Tower at one. I suppose that means another day off school with get well soon texts from Hayley and Max. Not that I'd go anyway. I need to go back to him. I need to know that he's okay.

I lie on my bed for hours and hours before I go to sleep. I make plans about how I can escape to see him, but none of them are flawless.I'm too tired to think of anything, but I'm to nervous to go to sleep. What if something happens and he dies? A) that will be my fault and I'll never forgive myself and B) who's going to look after me? Nothing will be the same. Four days. If I'd just thought of it earlier... or if I'd just stayed at the other place like a supposed to. Maybe then I would be a better person. Maybe I wouldn't be in this situation where he's in critical condition.

Around seven I fall asleep. My sleep is dreamless, which is good as it means there's no nightmares blaming me for everything. I'm doing enough of that myself. I'm not awoken by anyone or anything, which probably means something's happened and no one's told me about it. I glance at my phone, which tells me that the time is quarter to two, and proceed to drop my phone as it begins to ring. Steve. I answer it immediately, "Steve."

"Hey sweetie. No, I shouldn't say that I sound like a grandmother. Or a grandfather like Steve." Dad's voice whisper croaks. He sounds terrible, but at least he's alive.

"I'm so sorry and I love you so much." I whisper back.

"I love you too. Sorry I've got to be quick, Capsicle doesn't know I'm awake, and I stole his phone. He's sleeping.. I just wanted you to know I'm okay and I love you. It's not your fault, what happened, and all I can remember is you saving me. Sorry, he's waking up, love you Yana."

"Love you daddy." I press the end button on my phone, smiling. He's alive, doesn't think it's my fault and called me first. I should probably show my face downstairs.

I think all the others are happy that I didn't get up and run back to him. But then again, they all think he's about to die. "Call Steve." I command and Natasha's happy to comply.

"Hi Steve. How is he?" Pause. "Good." Pause. "Okay." She hands the phone to me and as I put it to my ear, I hear it being transferred on the other end.

"Hey Yana." This time my eyes prick with tears, and I realise exactly how close he could have come to death.

"Hi daddy." I reply.

"Yana what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"You... You almost died... And it was my fault... It's okay if you want to get rid of me."

"That's ridiculous. Why would I want to do that? I love you. It's not your fault. I blame-" I drop the phone and although Natasha's bullet proof case protects it, I realise what a nuisance I am. How everyone around me just gets killed or almost killed. I run from the room, everyone looking at me. I run to a bathroom and lock the door, putting my head on the cool tile floor. A sound comes out through the speakers, and I'll be honest, I scream. "Yana, it's not your fault. I want you to see me, so you know that I am perfectly fi-"

"Don't you dare say that you are fine. You are not fine. I saw what you were like last night. Don't try and pretend. I'll talk to you and even face time you but I'm not coming to see you. That'll make me feel worse."

Then I wonder if it's normal to have a conversation with your dad about not seeing him in hospital while lying on the floor of your bathroom, with the call coming through speakers. My guess is not. But I mean what I'm saying. No one's going to convince me otherwise. I'm not seeing him while he's all broken and not himself, and when it's my fault. I don't like hospitals anyway. He doesn't reply. I think he's a bit shocked but he'll respect my decision. He's probably giving Natasha instructions on how to look after me.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N Update #7 and update #final. MERRY CHRISTMAS!**

I've never felt more tired for a day of school in my life. The Avengers apparently care about my education and since I've had a week off, I have to go back. But I can't sleep. I can't think. I won't see him, because I'm too scared. Clint's taking me in, and he's supposed to explain, but it's Clint so I can't be sure he will.

He doesn't. He just drops me there and then says he'll be back, and that he's going to see dad. I get in to homeroom as the bell goes. Hayley and Max obviously don't think I'm coming in and they're sitting where they usually sit, not looking. I don't announce myself. There's no need. I say yes to my name in the register and that's when Hayley and Max turn around. I smile weakly and Hayley's face falls she knows something's up. She turns and I can imagine her asking, "what do you think is wrong?" Especially when I see Max shrugging his shoulders.

"Hey." Hayley smiles at me as we walk out together. "Where were you last week?"

"Tell you later." I shrug off. I'll probably cry when I talk about it and I don't want to do that in a hallway.

I can't concentrate, I can't write, I can't read. Not even in Russian. At break I go to the toilets and call Clint, then Steve, then Natasha, and no one picks up, which leads me to believe that something's gone wrong. I try dad as a last resort, and he picks up. "Yana what's wrong? Clint said you were at school."

"I'm... I'm not sure."

"Is it just one of those days?" A lump begins to build up in my throat.

"Yeah. Get... get better soon so you can hug me." The bell rings and I cut off before he asks if I need picking up. When I meet up with the others, I think Hayley asks me where I was, but I can't hear properly, everything's scrambled. I walk to the next lesson tired and confused.

Hayley and Max don't ask me anything about it. I don't say anything. At lunch they talk while I sit, not really listening. "I can't see you like this anymore. What's up?" Hayley says to me.

"Dad's in hospital. It's my fault." They both look at me, as if expecting more. "HYDRA took him, to get at me. Four days it took to find him. I get it if you don't want to be friends with me. It might happen to you."

"No." Max says instantly. "You're a good friend, and I don't care if I die for you." I'm shocked. Didn't expect him to say that.

"I would too." Hayley says softly. I didn't expect that. I'm genuinely surprised. I'm honoured to have such good friends.

* * *

><p>Somehow dad manages to get home after two and a half weeks. He says he's fine, but Steve says he's to be on strict bed rest and not to do anything. He tells JARVIS this which drives dad close to insanity. It's great. I'm just so happy that he's definitely going to be okay. He's still hurt, but he'll be okay.<p>

A couple of days later we're watching a film, just us. It's some cringey rom-com, set at Christmas for some reason, even though it's June, and neither of us are actually paying much attention. "You know, I could make a better film than this." Dad quips, his attention turning back to the screen.

"Is that what Stark Industries is going to do next?" I raise my eyebrows.

"I think Pepper will probably talk me out of that one. Maybe when you run the company." What?!

"What do you mean?"

"When I'm dea-"

"You're not going to die. Ever."

"So I'm going to be imooooooortal?" He sings. I roll my eyes. "Anyway, when Pepper and I are old, we'll need someone to run the company. And who better than you? I mean it's years away, but I trust you. I love you."

"Love you too daddy."

**A/N So that's it, Fresh Start over. Can't believe I met my target of Christmas. Thank you to all those who've read this and an even bigger thank you to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed! And also a massive Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it, Happy Hanukkah if you celebrate that, and if you don't celebrate anything, Happy Holidays and enjoy the break!**

**Random007**


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